When Katniss is Gone
by 1920sfashionstar
Summary: What other people think when Katniss goes into the Hunger Games. One-shots. I don't own the Hunger Games. This stands through the whole story.
1. Madge At The Reaping

I stare out the window, waiting. Katniss and Gale should be here soon with the strawberries. It's reaping day and I'm nervous, I shouldn't be, I only have five slips. A mere handful of the thousands in the bowl. Some of my classmates have five times as many as that, but I'm still scared. The fear won't ever go away; even when I'm out of the reaping bowl.

I check the clock above the kitchen counter. Any minute. There they are, I walk to the back door and open it.

"Pretty dress." Gale says. It takes me a minute to think of something to say, but even then there's no point, I probably just embarrassed myself. I'm not the best with comebacks (Understatement of the centery).

"Well if I'm going to the capitol, I want to look nice, don't I?" I reply. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"You won't be going to the capitol," he says, "What can you have? Five entries? I had six when I was just twelve years old." He's right, I think, I pull on the ends of my hair nervously.

"That's not her fault," Katniss points out, trying to defend me.

"No it's no one's fault. Just the way it is," He says. I ignore the comment and put the money for the berries in Katniss's hand.

"Good luck Katniss."

"You, too," She says.

I close the door as they walk away. I try not to let anything he says get to me. I fail miserably at that. I walk up stairs to see my mother before I go. I have half an hour. Plenty of time to see her.

"Hello mother," I say, I know she can't hear me but I pretend she can. It doesn't hurt anyone, "How are you today?" I sit down by her bed and brush some hair out of her pale face humming a tune that I play on the piano sometimes. I sit there for a couple of minutes, lost in thought. I check the clock in the corner of the room. Ten minutes. I better get going.

"Bye mother." I leave the room and exit the house. Our butler got the day off, no one else to say goodbye to. I walk to the square in silence, having no one to talk to.

After I'm registered I stand in the sixteen year old girl section. In a minute, Katniss joins me. Effie Trinket parrots through her normal annoying speeches and finally reaches into the bowl holding the girls names. I cross my fingers.

Please not me.

Please not Katniss.

She reads the name. It's not Katniss. It's not me. But how I wish it was. It's Prim.

I barely have time to register what's happening until I see Katniss on the stage. I hear Prim screaming in the background. Did she volunteer? From the confused murmurs I'd guess so.

Effie pulls out the boys slip and reads it.

"Peeta Mellark." He walks up to the stage, shaking.

My father reads through the Treaty of Treason, his eyes straying between the two tributes. He knows them, kind of.

I don't listen.

Prim? How could Prim of all people get reaped? She had one slip, even less than me. I wish it was me.


	2. Cato Watching The Reapings

"Bloodbath." Me and my district partner, Clove say at the same time.

We're watching the reapings and are currently on District Three. So far, there's been no one special except for us.

An idiotic looking guy from One, Marvin or something like that and a dumb blonde called Glimmer or Shimmer. No one special from Four.

A girl with striking red hair who looks like a fox from District Five – I don't catch her name.

Districts Six, Seven, Eight and Nine are boring; they'll all be dead in the first five minutes.

A cripple from District Ten.

"I bet he'll be the first to go." Clove mentions. Brutus nods, clearly agreeing.

"Maybe not," says Enobaria, "don't underestimate people."

I laugh and they all look at me.

"You can't underestimate him, he won't be able to run, if he can't run, he can't hide and he'll be useless at combat, I doesn't take a genius to figure that out." I say.

They don't speak and turn back to watch the rest.

A tiny, wisp of a girl from Eleven is reaped, Rue or Drew, I don't really care. No one volunteers. Hardly surprising. Wimps.

Her partner is a huge guy – I could still take him, easily – we'll ask him to join the careers though, he could be valuable. As the guy, Thresh walks up to the run down stage, the cabin is filled with gasps.

"Wooooaaaahhhh!" Brutus speaks up; it's the first time he has, "that's a biiiiiiiiig dude. Ask him to join. I guess we've found your match Cato."

I growl. "I could beat him" I argue.

"Sure!" says Clove, sarcastically, "I want to kill him. And I know you're all thinking he could crush me. He wont." The surety in her voice scares everyone to silence.

I wasn't expecting anything interesting from Twelve, the entire district is a joke. Their last victor won twenty-four years ago and they've only had one other than that. Their tributes usually die in the bloodbath.

And I'm sure that it wont be any different this year until a girl (Katniss, the best name to make fun of) lunges forward to volunteer for her younger sister, she sounds frantic but strong. She'll still die pretty early on.

Her district partner isn't interesting. Still everyone in the capitol is buzzing about the girl from Twelve. Stupid girl, stealing my spotlight. I'll kill _her _slowly.

After we eat, I go to sleep. Thinking about how I'll kill her. But, somehow, I find myself thinking about how pretty my district partner is.

With her glossy dark hair and bright, forest green eyes and perfectly pale skin. SNAP OUT OF IT CATO. I tell myself. She is my enemy, I'll have to kill her to win. That doesn't stop the thought of how she looks like a china doll coming into my head….


	3. Primrose The Battle At The Cornacopia

She's almost there. My sister has almost won The Hunger Games. I'm squeezing Gale's hand so hard I think I've cut of the blood supply.

The giant wolves are chasing them. There's something different about the mutts. They're not just the ordinary blood thirsty mutts. They look different. Their eyes look almost human. And they have numbers around their necks. There's twenty-one.

The number rings a bell.

Twenty-one.

Twenty-four tributes.

Twenty-one dead.

I realise what's different about them with a jolt.

"The dead tributes!" I shout. My mother, Gale, Gale's family and none other than Madge Undersee look at me in confusion, "The wolves are the dead tributes, look at their eyes and the numbers around their necks."

A look of realisation crosses their faces at the same time as Katniss's on the screen.

They're on top of the cornucopia. The brute from Two, Cato, I think, has Peeta in a headlock.

"Shoot me and he goes down with me." The boy says. I noticed something off about him.

It's all over quickly.

She's won. They've won. Everyone except for Gale is cheering. But the Capitol hasn't announced it yet. What's going on? Finally the speakers crackle to life.

But they aren't saying they've one.

The rules have been revoked?

But it's two victors.

Katniss picks up some berries.

The berries.

Nightlock.

Gale sucks in a breath.

They both put it in their mouths.

"WAIT!" It's screamed out over the arena.

Over the Capitol.

Over the Districts.

Over Panem.

My sister has won.


End file.
